Sienna Tiggy Guillory is an English actress, and former model. She is known for playing
the title role in the TV miniseries, Helen of Troy, her portrayal of Jill Valentine in
the science fiction action horror film Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and as elf princess Arya
Dröttningu in fantasy-adventure film, Eragon. She resumed her role as Jill Valentine for
a cameo appearance in the 2010 action-horror film Resident Evil: Afterlife, and in Resident
Evil: Retribution, released on 14 September 2012.
Early life Born in Kettering, Northamptonshire, England,
Guillory is the daughter of the American folk guitarist Isaac Guillory and his first wife,
English model Tina Thompson, whom he married in 1973. Isaac Guillory was of Jewish heritage
and born at the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba, the son of an American sailor and his Turkish
wife. Her parents moved to Fulham, London when Guillory
was two, then later to Norfolk when she was 11. At the age of ten, she went to stay with
cousins in Mexico to learn Spanish. She has a half-brother named Jace, whom her
father had adopted and with whom she shares the same mother. Her parents divorced in 1990
when she was 14, and in 1993, her father married Vickie McMillan, which resulted in a much
younger half-sister and half-brother, Ellie and Jacob. Guillory attended Gresham's School
in Holt, Norfolk, where she took part in numerous school productions.
Guillory has been an equestrian since the age of two. At 14, she was given a horse,
which she named The Night Porter, or "Porty", after the film The Night Porter; Guillory
was a fan of its leading actress Charlotte Rampling.
In December 2000, Guillory's father died of cancer at the age of 53.
Career Modelling
In 1997, Guillory accompanied a ballerina friend to the London modelling agency Select
and was soon signed. She modelled solely to support her acting career. As a model, she
worked in campaigns for Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry, and Paul Smith and appeared on the
covers of several fashion magazines. In 1999, she became the face of the Hugo Boss fragrance
campaign, succeeding model Karen Ferrari and continuing the campaign for three years. After
modelling for a few years, Guillory returned her focus to acting in 2000. She is signed
to Independent Models in London. Acting
Guillory explained that she "became an actor because I wanted to know what it was like
to be other people. Because possibly I don't like myself", and later said "I hate acting,
really hate it. I kind of fell into it sideways ... I started acting because I got offered
a job when I was 16, and they wanted to pay me £8,000, and we'd always lived on Family
Support..." She went on to say that her frustration with later film roles left her bitter, but
after seeing Helen Mirren onstage she was inspired again.
In 1993, Guillory made her screen debut in a TV adaptation of Jilly Cooper's novel, Riders,
for which the casting directors needed a young actress who was able to ride a horse. Her
performance landed her in another small role in the miniseries The Buccaneers, opposite
Mira Sorvino. Before becoming a model to support her acting
career, Guillory waited tables at a club. In an interview in 2000, she said about the
experience "Supporting my acting habit with waitressing was probably the most useful thing
I've done." During her time as a model, she studied acting at the New World School of
the Arts and the Paris Conservatoire, also taking small television and film roles in
The Future Lasts a Long Time, The Rules of Engagement, Star! Star!, Kiss Kiss, The 3
Kings, and Two Days, Nine Lives. During this time, Guillory decided to go on with her acting
career because "I was so scared of going to university and being with people my own age
again, having been with that tiny little sect of girls in Norfolk whose daddies were farmers
and politicians, who didn't trust me and didn't know where I was coming from".
She returned to film with a more substantial role in the thriller Sorted. Guillory went
on to appear in the BBC production Take a Girl Like You, a television adaptation of
Kingsley Amis's novel of the same name. She portrayed Jenny Bunn, the story's virginal
heroine, and gained critical attention for her part in the period piece. Guillory was
pleased to have played a more innocent character, saying "I've played floozies, psychopaths,
assassins, crackheads... It's nice to do something with a lighter touch." The production did
not fare well in the ratings. In 2001, Guillory continued with other roles
in predominantly British films, including Oblivious, Late Night Shopping, The Last Minute,
and Superstition. 2002 saw Guillory appear in The Time Machine, alongside Guy Pearce
and Jeremy Irons. She was pleased to take on a larger scale film, after having worked
on low-budget independent films, and compared the experience with "finding an unicorn in
your sock drawer". She played Emma, the fiancée of Pearce's character, who was killed early
in the film and whose death set off its main events.
In 2003, after a friend had received a script for The Principles of Lust, Guillory claims
she "read it and couldn't put it down, and begged to read for the part". She was impressed
by director Penny Woolcock's unconventional style of shooting, without rehearsing the
actors, using raw takes and improvisational performances. For the role of Juliette, Guillory
performed nude in the film's sex scenes which were filmed during the first week of filming,
making her somewhat nervous. She later went on to say that it was one of her favorite
acting experiences. Afterwards, Guillory had a small role in the romantic comedy Love,
Actually before taking the starring role in the television miniseries Helen of Troy. The
series was mostly based on Homer's epic poem Iliad and focuses on the mythological life
of Helen. Helen of Troy was nominated for best miniseries at the Satellite Awards.
In May 2004, Guillory starred in a new stage production of The Shape of Things at the New
Ambassadors Theatre in London, with husband Cilenti. 2004 also saw Guillory in her first
big Hollywood role. She was cast as Jill Valentine, one of the lead characters in the video game
adaptation sequel Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The film makers had searched widely for an
actress to portray the video game character and found her in Guillory, who had to "please
not only the movie-going audience but also the gamers". She was, however, "a dead ringer
for Jill Valentine". Guillory was reported to have studied the original character's movements
by watching playthroughs of the video game Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Before getting the
script for the film, she had not been familiar with the video games or seen Resident Evil.
She said about her role: Resident Evil: Apocalypse, although it was
not well received by critics, grossed $23,036,273 on its opening weekend and took a total of
$51,201,453 in the United States and $129,394,835 worldwide.
After the success of Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Guillory went on to appear in other film and
television roles, including Beauty, Marple: A Murder Is Announced, In the Bathroom, The
Virgin Queen, Silence Becomes You, and Rabbit Fever.
In 2006, Guillory was a lead in the ensemble cast of the fantasy Eragon, the film adaptation
of the novel by Christopher Paolini; the role had reunited her with The Time Machine co-star
Jeremy Irons. She portrayed Arya Dröttningu, an elf princess. She had not read the novels
before filming, but after accepting the role she soon became a fan of Paolini's work. Although
Arya is a key character in the film, Guillory had little screen time and went on to say
jokingly: "I've been trying to explain to friends who've seen the trailer [...] I'm
like, "[...] but that's my whole part!"" Eragon was not well received by the critics, but
was nominated as Best Fantasy Film at the 2006 Saturn Awards. The film went on to gross
approximately $75 million in the US and $173.9 million elsewhere, totalling $249 million worldwide.
Guillory was also invited to reprise her role as Jill Valentine in Resident Evil: Extinction,
the sequel to Resident Evil: Apocalypse, but could not accept due to scheduling conflicts
with Eragon. In 2007, she starred in the Spanish production
El Corazón de la tierra, or The Heart of the Earth, and later in the year finished
filming the horror/thriller Victims and the fantasy novel adaptation Inkheart. In Inkheart,
she plays Resa, the wife of Brendan Fraser's character and the mother of Eliza Bennett's.
Inkheart sees Guillory acting alongside Helen Mirren, a friend of the Guillory family who
was a role model when she first had aspirations towards acting.
Guillory will be a lead in the forthcoming television series The Oaks, expected to begin
airing in 2008. She joins Bahar Soomekh, Matt Lanter, Romy Rosemont, Jeremy Renner, Michael
Rispoli and Shannon Lucio in the series which follows the intertwining stories of three
families—a young couple in 1968 that have lost a child, a family of four in 1998, and
a pregnant couple in 2008—who are haunted by the same spirit in their house. The television
series began filming on 5 November 2007 on location in Pasadena, California. Guillory
will play Jessica, the 2008 couple's neighbour, a woman who has Asperger syndrome who went
to school with the husband and shares a secret with him.
In May 2010, Shock Till You Drop.com confirmed the return of Jill Valentine in the Resident
Evil film franchise's fourth instalment, Resident Evil: Afterlife, with Guillory reprising the
role. On 31 May, Jovovich also confirmed that Guillory would return as Jill. Guillory reappears
in the film in a mid-end credit scene. She returned to a starring role in the following
film, Resident Evil: Retribution as the main antagonist of the film.
Media In 2001, readers of Esquire UK voted Guillory
"Britain's Most Eligible Woman" and featured her in a pictorial in the magazine. Guillory
was photographed for the cover and shoot by photographer Jonathan Glynn Smith. In 2002,
she was number 89 on Maxim's list of "The 100 Sexiest Women", and in 2007 Guillory was
voted number 54 at Askmen.com's Top 99 Countdown. Guillory has also been quoted as disliking
the Hollywood culture, saying she does not wish to be part of it:
Personal life In 2000, Guillory began dating Enzo Cilenti,
and the couple married in 2002. In February 2011, Guillory gave birth to twin daughters,
Valentina and Lucia Cilenti, named after her grandmother and great aunt who were also twin
sisters. In August 2004, Guillory and Cilenti cycled
five stages of the Tour de France to raise money for charity.
Filmography References
External links Sienna Guillory at the Internet Movie Database
Sienna Guillory at the Fashion Model Directory Sienna Guillory on Facebook
Sienna Guillory at Rotten Tomatoes Sienna Guillory at AllMovie